Find Information at Bowman
Searching the catalog doesn't find everything! Check out the tabs in the box below to uncover more information.
Best Resources for this Course
Find Information about Companies & the Industries in which they operate:
The following databases provide detailed company reports, industry overviews, market share reports, information about trends within a targeted industry, and articles from business & finance related journals, magazines, & newspapers.
- Start by determining the Industrial sector into which your company or venture will fall.
- Look up a company's main product in the NAICS link below to determine industrial code, or
- Find a company report or a competitor's company report to locate relevant industrial codes
- Remember, the relevant NAICS code or a company's ticker symbol can be used as search terms in these databases
- NAICSThe North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
- ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
Includes international coverage and provides researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.
- Business Insights: Essentials (formerly Business & Company Resource Center) This link opens in a new window
Use "Company Finder" or the main search box to find info about your company. Click on the links on the left menu; these may include Investment Reports, Financials, Rankings, and Recent News. SWOT analyses are available for some companies. Financial Data & Legal Issues might be of particular interest. Under "Industries" you'll find overviews of the industry into which your business fits. - Business Source Complete (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Contains market research reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses, and full-text articles from newspapers, magazines & academic journals. Enter your company name in the search box & select CO Company Entity in the Select a Field dropdown menu to get a manageable results list. Use the NAICS related to your company to find news, articles, & information about that industrial sector. - Mergent Online This link opens in a new windowDetailed financial and company information is available in this resource. Search by company name or ticker symbol. You can build reports comparing stock prices of your company and its competitors, look at pricing summaries, find company financials and ratings, and more.
- ValueLine Investment Survey Reports This link opens in a new windowSearch by company name or ticker symbol for analyst commentaries and rankings. Go to the "Dashboard" tab at the top of the page, then to "Investment Survey" on right-hand side and to "Lookup Company." "Survey Issues" takes you to Ratings & Reports, Selection & Opinion, and Summary & Index; the latter provides three-to-five year forecasts for stocks, as well as percentage of appreciation.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
A great background resource to investigate concepts, financial terms, events, and overviews across multiple subject areas. - PrivCo This link opens in a new windowUse this database to investigate the financials, VC backing, owners, etc., of privately held firms. Includes family-owned, private equity owned, venture backed companies, as well as some international companies not listed on the US stock exchanges. Includes over 500,000 companies.
- Statista This link opens in a new window
One of the world's largest statistics portals with data from over 18,000 sources. Provides access to 1 million statistics. Also contains information on industries, countries, digital markets, and other topics, as well as infographics.
Finding Journal Articles
Often your professor will ask you to use scholarly articles, academic articles, or peer-reviewed articles. These are generally all the same thing. They are written by scholars who are experts in their fields and are usually tied to a college or university. They are great for:
- Credible and trustworthy information
- Recent findings and research topics in the field
- Research studies, tables, and data
- Bibliographies and reference lists.
Find Journal Articles about your topic:
- Business Source Complete (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Leading scholarly business database with over 1,300 publications, including peer-reviewed journals. Covers all business disciplines, including marketing, management, accounting, finance, and economics. Also includes financial data, company profiles, industry reports, market research reports, SWOT analyses, and more.
- EBSCOhost (includes several component databases) This link opens in a new windowProvides online access to an extensive collection of databases, including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete, Newspaper Source, Alt HealthWatch, Health Source, and APA PsycArticles/PsycInfo. Offers the ability to search any and all of these at the same time. Sources include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, reports, and more.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowProvides access to scholarly literature "across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations." Note that many articles contain only the citation and no full text; if full text is not available, you can order articles or books via Interlibrary Loan.
- Financial Times (via ABI/INFORM) This link opens in a new window
The Financial Times is read daily by businesses, politicians, and academics around the world. The FT covers a variety of topics, including management, business, the legal industry, politics, climate change, and economics, all from a global perspective.
While we no longer have a direct subscription to ft.com, we have access to content published from 05/31/1996 to present (with a 30 Day delay) through ABI/Inform. - New York Times (NYTimes.com) This link opens in a new windowActivate your subscription from one of the links below and make sure you use the off campus activation link if you are off campus and the on campus activation link if you are on campus. After creating your account, you can log on to the New York Times site directly using your Menlo e-mail and the password you have set up. iPhone, iPad, and Android apps are available with your login. The Menlo Community has full-text access to the New York Times from 1851 to the present. For the years 1923-1980 there is a limit of 5 articles per day per user.
Through the database ABI/Inform, Menlo students, faculty, & staff have access to the full text of two digital versions of the Wall Street Journal:
- Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition from Jan. 2, 1984 to the present - This is the digital version of the print edition
- Wall Street Journal, Online Edition from Jan. 8, 2010 to the present - This includes all content published online by WSJ
Information about Sources
The linked powerpoint presents some further details about sources you may use in developing your FIN 220 project.
